Matt & Shannon Heaton will perform at Skye Theatre Wednesday, Sept. 9 and at Lakeside Theater in Rangeley Thursday, Sept. 10. (Susan Wilson photo) SOUTH CARTHAGE & RANGELEY — New England Celtic Arts will present Matt & Shannon Heaton at Skye Theatre Performing Arts Center in So. Carthage on Wednesday, Sept. 9 and at the Lakeside Theater in Rangeley on Thursday Sept. 10. Both concerts will start at 7 p.m. A pre-show jam at Skye Theatre will start at 6:15. Audience members are encouraged to bring their instruments and join in with the performers.

Matt and Shannon Heaton share many Irish music memories, because they have performed together from their first meeting in Chicago in 1991. Behind their Irish flute and guitar-driven tunes and stirring songs is a deep well of mutual memories, setbacks, and triumphs. Having built their act from years of touring together (first with band Siucra, then as a duo), Matt and Shannon have grown into thoroughly entertaining performers. They bring to the stage a depth of shared experience and a love for Irish music; their stage banter is comfortable, often hilarious.

"Their playing is masterful and inventive, their arrangements city-smart and spacious. Still, they never forget that Irish music is, at its heart, a neighborly form meant for sharing, not showing off," Scott Alarik, Boston Globe, said.

Musically speaking, the Heatons play the heck out of their instruments (Irish wood flute/accordion, guitar/bouzouki). After years of study in Chicago, and many nights of music in Clare, Galway, and their adopted home of Boston, Irish Music Magazine's John O'Regan wrote, "their duet playing is tight, sweet, and tasteful, lacking nothing on either technical expertise or instrumental virtuosity."

As for their singing, when Matt and Shannon perform centuries-old songs, it feels current, conversational. They make traditional music relevant to American audiences. O'Regan wrote "songwise (there are) hints an older domestic sound, the familiar down home harmonies of The Carter Family and Tim and Mollie O'Brien."

Skye Theater is located 3 miles west of East Dixfield village at 2 Highland Drive off Winter Hill Road and U.S. Route 2 in South Carthage. Ticket price is $10 at the door.

Lakeside Theater is on Main Street in Rangeley. Lakeside Theater tickets are $10 in advance and $12.50 at the door. Advance tickets may be purchased at the theater or on the Web site, www.rangeleymovies.com.

For reservations at the theater you wish to attend call: Skye Theatre at 562-4445 or Lakeside Theater at 864- 5000.

More information is available at http://www.necelticarts. com.